NEW YORK (AFP) – Top-ranked defending champion Novak Djokovic retired from his US Open match Sunday after dropping the first two sets to Stan Wawrinka, sending the Swiss three-time Grand Slam champion into the quarter-finals.
Djokovic, who won four of the past five Slam crowns and 16 overall, was in pain from a nagging left shoulder injury while 34-year-old Wawrinka, who also beat Djokovic in the 2016 US Open final, showed himself a true title contender.
“It helped me big time knowing I have the game to beat him on that court,” Wawrinka said. “It’s never the way you want to finish a match. I’m sorry for Novak. He’s an amazing champion.”
On a day when Roger Federer cruised into a quarterfinal against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Russian fifth seed Daniil Medvedev reached his first Slam quarterfinal, Djokovic’s shocker stole the show.
“It’s frustrating. Very frustrating,” Djokovic said. “Obviously not the first, not the last player to get injured and withdraw from one of the biggest events in sport.”
Djokovic admitted he has been hurting for weeks without detailing how or when the injury took place.
“The pain was constant for weeks now, some days higher, some days with less intensity,” Djokovic said. “Taking different stuff to kill the pain instantly. Sometimes it works. sometimes it doesn’t.”
Wawrinka has battled nearly two years to recover Slam-winning form after knee surgery and his performance, after a French Open quarterfinal run, shows his journey is nearly complete.
Medvedev, a winner at Cincinnati and runner-up at Montreal and Washington in hardcourt tuneup events, advanced to face Wawrinka by beating 118th-ranked German qualifier Dominik Koepfer, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).
Federer, a five-time US Open champion with 20 Slam titles, advanced to the US Open quarter-finals for the 13th time by routing Belgian 15th seed David Goffin, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in only 79 minutes.
The 38-year-old Swiss third seed is 7-0 lifetime against 78th-ranked Dimitrov, who dispatched Australia’s 38th-ranked Alex de Minaur, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Meantime, Serena Williams overcame an injury scare to maintain her pursuit of a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title while Roland Garros champion Ashleigh Barty and Karolina Pliskova crashed out in the last 16.
Williams, a six-time US Open winner, romped to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Croatian 22nd seed Petra Martic to set up a quarterfinal with China’s Wang Qiang, the conqueror of world number two Barty.
She will play 18th seed Wang for the first time as the Chinese 27-year-old extended her best Slam run with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of an erratic Barty.
